Traditionally, throughout the years, the coffee drinking public has utilized fluid, dairy-based coffee creamers or whiteners to lighten coffee and to neutralize coffee acids for producing a smoother, milder and more mellow coffee drink. Probably the most popular fluid, dairy-based coffee whitener for this purpose has been half & half, a fluid milk product having a butterfat content of not less than 10.5% by weight.
In more recent years, non-dairy coffee whiteners have become of increasing importance in the food industry because of their ease of handling and unrefrigerated shelf stability. Their success has been attributed, in part, to economics by comparison, for example, with the relatively high cost of fluid dairy products and, in part, to the somewhat emotional appeal associated with their freedom from cholesterol due to the absence of butterfat from these non-dairy whiteners. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,239,786--Gilmore et al, 4,407,838--Rule et al, 4,415,600--Miller et al and 4,341,811--Rule et al disclose typical non-dairy coffee whitener formulations.
Non-dairy coffee whiteners are marketed in three physical forms: powdered, liquid and frozen. Regardless of their physical form most non-dairy coffee whiteners contain the same essential ingredients, namely hydrogenated vegetable fat or oil, carbohydrates, protein, emulsifiers and stabilizing/buffering agents. The absolute level of each of these ingredients in the coffee whitener varies depending on the physical form of the whitener, although the relative proportions of the ingredients remain about the same. As a practical matter dried coffee whitener formulations are the most popular and the ingredient formulation for a typical powdered whitener is given in the table below in which all proportions are in percent by weight:
______________________________________ TYPICAL POWDERED ______________________________________ Hydrogenated Vegetable 35 Fat or Oil Carbohydrate (e.g., 24 55.25 D.E. corn syrup solids) Protein (e.g., sodium 5.25 caseinate) Emulsifier (e.g., mono- 2.5 diglyceride) Stabilizing/Buffering 2 Agents (e.g., K.sub.2 HPO.sub.4) Color/Flavor as needed ______________________________________
By way of comparison, typical liquid coffee whiteners include from 3-12% fat, 4-10 carbohydrate, 0.75-1.5% protein, 0.2-1.0% emulsifier, 0.1-0.65% stabilizing/buffering agents, balance water.
A good dry, non-dairy coffee whitener formulation is one which, on reconstitution in coffee, forms a stable fat emulsion wherein the particle size of the fat or oil in the emulsion is about 1-3 microns in diameter. This provides a whitening effect, produced primarily as a result of light reflected from the surface of the finely emulsified fat globules. The carbohydrate, typically a corn syrup solid, acts as a carrier for the fat to retard coalescence of the fat and provides some sweetness effect. Emulsifiers, such as mono- and diglycerides are incorporated in the formulation to maintain the fat globules in dispersion. The protein, which almost invariably is sodium caseinate, has been found to be necessary to stabilize the emulsion through the drying step so that when the dried product is reconstituted in coffee, a stable emulsion is provided. The protein encapsulates the oil or fat droplets and binds water, thus preventing separation of the fat and coalescence of the droplets to form undesirable fat globules on the surface of the hot coffee. Sodium caseinate, however, has its problems--casein is milk derived and becoming expensive and sodium caseinate, while legally defined to be a non-dairy material, may make the product unacceptable to some ethnic groups. Unfortunately, the several attempts to replace sodium caseinate with other water dispersible proteins such as soy protein, have all been less than satisfactory. This is due to off-flavors, feathering of the protein in coffee, fat separation, poor whitening properties, and other problems. It is also common to include in the product stabilizing/buffering salts such as dipotassium phosphate, disodium phosphate, sodium citrate, tetrasodium pyrophosphates, ets., to improve the colloidal dispersibility of the protein and prevent what is termed "protein feathering" or precipitation of the protein due to acidity of the drink to which the whitener is added.
The fat or oil which is used is preferably bland or neutral in flavor and has, particularly for a spray dried product, long term stability against oxidation and the development of rancidity. For this purpose, fats which are highly saturated have been preferred. In addition, the fat must have a sufficiently high solids content at storage and/or handling temperature for the fat to remain in a solid state during storage and/or handling. At the same time the solids content of the fat should be sufficiently low to avoid leaving a waxy mouth-feel when used in coffee. In order to meet these criteria it has become conventional to employ a hydrogenated lauric-containing fat which is solid at room temperature, most usually coconut oil.
Notwithstanding that non-dairy coffee whiteners contain no cholesterol, their content of highly saturated fats, such as coconut oil, presents the same sort of dietary dilemma as the high cholesterol levels of high butterfat creamers such as half & half. High saturated fat levels in the blood, like high cholesterol levels in the blood, increase the risk of heart disease. Thus, to the extent that the dietary intake of high cholesterol or high saturated fat-containing foods may be a cause of high cholesterol or high saturated fat levels in the blood, and this connection has yet to be conclusively established, the risk of heart disease should be reduced by reducing the intake of foods high in butterfat or saturated fat. However, the switch from butterfat-containing coffee whiteners to coconut oil-containing coffee whiteners accomplishes a reduction in dietary cholesterol only at the expense of an increase in dietary saturated fat levels and with no apparent reduction in the risk of heart disease. Indeed, it is believed by some that decreasing caloric intake while maintaining protein and carbohydrate intake is as effective as anything else in decreasing the risk of heart disease.
It is, therefore, the purpose of the present invention to avoid the cholesterol for saturated fat trade-off between half & half and non-dairy whiteners and provide a new and aesthetically pleasing fluid, dairy coffee whitener having the appearance, taste, body, mouth feel and whitening ability of high butterfat-containing dairy creamers yet which has a negligible saturated fat content, an insignificantly low cholesterol content and less than half the calorie content per serving of either high butterfat or non-dairy whiteners. The result is an effective coffee whitener, despite the absence of oils and fats, which is aesthetically pleasing, minimizes the risk of heart disease and is attractive to calorie conscious dieters